In recent years, silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter called color light-sensitive material) products have been markedly improved to provide high-quality images; their sharpness and graininess are on a fairly high level and have few or no problems as long as they are appreciated on service-sized color prints or slides available to customers.
However, recently diversified user needs demand commercialization of light-sensitive materials capable of showing excellent characteristics even in specific uses, and from this point of view, the development of light-sensitive materials having still more excellent image-forming characteristics are urgently needed.
To meet the above demand, many studies have hitherto been made to improve silver halide emulsions. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,414,306, 4,414,310, 4,433,048, 4,434,226 and 4,459,353 disclose techniques for sensitivity improvements including color sensitizing efficiency improvement by use of sensitizing dyes, for sensitivity/graininess balance improvement, for sharpness improvement and for the use of tabular silver halide grains for covering power improvement.
JP O.P.I. Nos. 113930/1983, 113934/1983 and 113950/1984 also disclose multilayer color light-sensitive materials improved to have a high sensitivity and excellent graininess, sharpness and color reproducibility by using tabular silver halide grains having an aspect ratio of 8:1 in the high-speed emulsion layer thereof.
However, as a result of our investigation, it has been found that the simple use of tabular silver halide grains in the light-sensitive material in the field requiring a very high image quality level as mentioned above is unsatisfactory to attain the required sensitivity, graininess and sharpness.
On the other hand, as for the color reproducibility, one of the four factors of image quality, although color purity is already improved to enable fresh, sometimes stressed color reproduction, the true reproduction of colors that have conventionally been deemed difficult to be reproduced photographically is still not accomplished. For example, those objects in purple/violet or bluish green/yellowish green colors having a red-terminal reflection, i.e., reflecting the light having longer wavelengths than 600 nm, are reproduced in quite different colors than the actual color thereof, thus sometimes disappointing picture takers.
In general, it is important for the true color reproduction in control of the spectral sensitivity distribution to shift the sensitivity of the red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer (hereinafter called red-sensitive layer) toward shorter wavelength side from the view point of making the peak of the wavelength region to which the light-sensitive material is sensitive closer to the luminosity factor of human beings. Particularly, the red-sensitive layer's sensitivity shift toward shorter wavelength side is important for the color reproduction of objects such as flowers having red-terminal reflection. The sensitivity shift of the red-sensitive layer, however, causes lowering of chroma; particularly has brought trouble to natural skin-color reproduction that is important for the color reproduction in making portraits: i.e.. it loses a healthy reddish color peculiar to the skin to result in a lifeless color.
JP O.P.I. Nos. 20926/1978 and 131937/1979 also disclose techniques for bringing the red-sensitive layer near the green-sensitive layer or shifting the red-sensitive layer's sensitivity to shorter wavelength side, but the effect thereof is not sufficient and has the above-mentioned shortcomings. Further, JP O.P.I. No. 181144/1990 prescribes the difference in the sensitivity to 480 nm between the blue-sensitive layer and the green-sensitive layer and the density of the yellow filter layer.
Also, JP O.P.I. 160449/1987 discloses a technique that specifies spectral sensitivity and interimage effect (IIE). The technique specifies the IIE's orientations to respective color-sensitive layers.
Besides. JP O.P.I. No. 160448/1987 discloses a technique to provide a cyan-sensitive layer to produce an IIE effect upon layers up to the red-sensitive layer to create a negative spectral sensitivity falsely corresponding to the spectral sensitivity of the human eye. To be concrete, it is necessary for generation of IIE to provide an IIE generating layer (cyan-sensitive layer) in addition to the intrinsic blue-sensitive, green-sensitive and red-sensitive layers, so the technique is disadvantageous in that it necessarily increases the amount of silver and production cost, and yet its effect is not sufficient.
Accordingly, there has been a demand for solving the above problem and development of a color light-sensitive material which is satisfactory in the color reproducibility as well as in the graininess and sharpness.